This is the Middle Kingdom Letter of Acceptances and Returns for Escutcheon's
July 19, 2011 Letter of Intent. This would normal be the September
ILoAR but with starting back to school this weekend was the the best for me to
get it done. So the items on this letter that are accepted at Kingdom
benefit by being forwarded to Laurel in August rather than September.

My thanks to Talan Gwynek, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Simcha bat Yonah for their commentary. I have copied
relevant passages from the commentary.

My decisions and comments on them
follow the commentary and are prefaced with ROUGE
SCARPE: and are in red. Items that are accepted will be forwarded to Laurel as
a Middle LoI posted on OSCAR.

Escutcheon's Note:
Client's name was registered March 2010 via the Middle. This resubmission
corrects an emblazon error. Laurel indicated, "This device caused much
discussion of whether or not it was a primary drum between two secondary bars,
two primary bars surrounding a secondary drum, or three co-primary charges. No
consensus was reached in commentary. As it is not possible to accurately blazon
this device, it is returned for violating section VIII.7.b of the RfS ... [also]
if this is considered three co-primaries it will conflict with the important
non-SCA armory of Drummond, Earl of Perth, Or, three bars wavy gules."

Device Comments:

Aryanhwy: Unfortunately, the new submission has three clearly
co-primary charges, and thus it "conflict[s] with the important non-SCA
armory of Drummond, Earl of Perth, Or, three bars wavy gules."

Talan: I don't know what the original version looked like, but this is
unmistakably 'a drum between two bars wavy'.

ROUGE SCARPE: Forwarded to Laurel with
the Blazon: Or, a drum between two
bars wavy gules. Commentary was split on whether this cleared the previous
problem or not so it is being sent up to benefit from more commentary at the
Laurel level.

2) Ayreton, Barony of - New Award
name - "The Order of Ríáin's Star"

Ayreton

Ríáin -
Index of Names in the Irish Annals dates the name from 900-1200.

Escutcheon's Notes: Client will accept major and minor changes, and cares
most about sound (this award is being named after a member who passed away)

Order Name Comments:

Aryanhwy: This violates RfS III.1.a Linguistic Consistency by combining
Gaelic <Ríáin> and English <'s Star> in the same phrase.

Additionally, the definite article should not be used:

Avacal, Principality of. Order name Order of Avacal. Submitted as The Order of
Avacal, we do not register definite articles before designators in order
names. We have changed the name to Order of Avacal in order to register it. [LoAR
04/2008].

<Order of the> would not have to be translated:

This name uses an English-language designator in an otherwise Latin name.
This has previously been ruled acceptable:...

For order and award names, we have traditionally allowed the designator and
following prepositions and articles (such as Award of, Order of the) to be
rendered in English rather than in the language of the rest of the name....[Gleann
Abhann, Principality of, 06/2003 LoAR, A-Meridies]

So <Order of Ríáin's Star> translates as
<Order of Réalta Ríáin>
as best as I can piece together.

ROUGE SCARPE: Forwarded to Laurel as <Order
of Réalta Ríáin>.
As submitted the Order name violates RfS III.1.a Linguistic Consistency by
combining Gaelic and English. Since they allowed changes I have done my
best to translate the desired name into Gaelic. It is our hope that the commentary
at the Laurel level will be of further assistance with the order name.
Also the College of Arms does not register definite articles before designators
in order names so the "The" before "Order" has been dropped
according to precedent; "Avacal, Principality of. Order name
Order of Avacal. Submitted as The Order of Avacal, we do not register definite
articles before designators in order names. We have changed the name to Order of
Avacal in order to register it." [LoAR 04/2008].

3) Duncan Sinclair (M)– New Name and
Device- "Argent, three fish in fess and a brown bear contourny proper"

Qal' at Ja'far

Duncan -
A dictionary of English and Welsh surnames, with special American instances [EN:
"Bardsley"], pages 568, 257, 441, 249, and 623

Escutcheon's Notes: Client will accept both major and minor changes, and
cares most about language/culture (Scotland). Client desires a male name.

Name Comments:

Aryanhwy: All these references, and no actual documentation. :( It
doesn't matter how many sources the submitter cites, if he doesn't tell us what
the sources say about the elements.

Since he wants a Scottish name, how about some Scottish documentation? My
"Index of Scots names found in Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue"
(http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/scots/dost/)
has 14 citations of <Duncan> between 1379 and 1619, and 8 citations of
<Sinclair> between 1502 and 1613. This is an excellent 16th C Scots name,
and amazingly I found no conflicts.

Device Comments:

Aryanhwy: The fish are not in fess; they are "two and one"
and also "bendwise contourny".

Talan: The fish are neither 'in fess' nor even 'in chief'. Their
location is 'in chief'; their arrangement is 'in chevron inverted'; their
orientation is 'bendwise'; and their tincture is 'vert'. Were this drawn in more
heraldic fashion, it would be 'Argent, a brown bear statant contourny proper and
in chief three fish bendwise contourny in chevron inverted vert'; as drawn, it
appears to be better described as 'Argent, in chief three fish bendwise
contourny in chevron inverted vert and in base a brown bear statant contourny
proper'.

ROUGE SCARPE: Name forwarded to
Laurel. Device forwarded to Laurel with the Blazon: Argent,
in chief three fish bendwise contourny in chevron inverted vert and in base a
brown bear statant contourny proper.

4) Mariza de la Courete (F)
– Resubmitted Device - "Purpure, on a saltire Or, between in base an
arming buckle Or and three dragonflies Argent, a pomme"

Vanished Wood

Escutcheon's Note:
Clien't name was registered in February of 2011 via the Middle. The original was
sent back by Laurel for a redraw. The color image is a mock-up of convenience as
my scan was unusable. The image, and this note, will be removed in the very near
future and replaced with a scan of the actual form.

Device Comments:

Simcha: No conflicts.

Aryanhwy: Specifically, the reason for return is as follows:

This device is returned for a redraw. Commenters had difficulty identifying
the types of the secondary charges. This is a violation of Section VII.7.a of
the Rules for Submissions, which says that "Elements must be recognizable
solely from their appearance."

On resubmission, please instruct the submitter to draw the pomme as either
truly overall or truly on the saltire. The submitted emblazon is a style
called 'barely overall'. Were this the only problem, the depiction would be
registerable under our current rules, but since the submitter has to do a
redraw in any case, fixing this issue should be trivial.

This redraw appears to have fixed the issues.

However, the blazon should be tweaked: "Purpure, on a saltire Or between in
cross three dragonflies argent and an arming buckle Or, a pomme."

Talan: 'Purpure, on a saltire Or between three dragonflies argent and
an arming buckle Or a pomme.'

ROUGE SCARPE: Forwarded to Laurel with
the Blazon: Purpure, on a saltire Or
between three dragonflies argent and an arming buckle Or a pomme.

Escutcheon's Notes:
Client's name was registered in Februrary of 2011 via the Middle.

Device Comments:

Konrad: The original device "Per bend beveled sable and gules, two
cat prints argent" was returned in Kingdom November 2010. My decision from
that letter: Device is returned for having multiple Steps from Period
Practice (SFPP), armory is registerable with one SFPP but two or more are cause
for return. Also the bevilled line was drawn incorrectly which is a reason for
return, this was corrected and new forms sent when the precedent on the charges
along with a bevilled line being a second SFPP was discovered. Related
precedents:

[returning Per chevron enhanced argent and sable, two pawprints and a wolf's
head cabossed counterchanged.] The paw prints are one weirdness, and the per
chevron enhanced is another. (Morgan Blaidd Du, 7/96 p. 19)

Even the documented per bend bevilled cannot, by Laurel precedent, be used with
dissimilar charges. Legh, Accidences of Armory (1586), asserts that the field
should not be charged at all. We have, as one step beyond period practice,
allowed the field to be used with a single type of simple charge. The submitted
device, however, would be at least two steps beyond period practice. [Béla Kós,
02/01, R-Outlands]

[Per bend sinister "bevilled"] The line of division was not bevilled
as described in the cover letter to the August 1992 LoAR. It is thus returned
pending documentation for this line of division. The submitter should be
informed that period examples of fields such as per bend bevilled were generally
not accompanied by other charges. [Komask Undan of the Silver Stallion, 12/99,
R-Atenveldt]

The submitter changed the bevilled line of division to a bend bevilled with the
bevil drawn correctly. Will this change remove one SFPP?

Talan: The arms shown in the colored emblazon are 'Per bend sable and
gules, a bend bevilled between two paw prints argent'. They must be returned for
incorporating two weirdnesses, namely, a bend bevilled between secondary
charges, and paw prints as charges; see the June 2004 LoAR, returning the coat
submitted for Rebekah Anna Leah Wynterbourne (Atenveldt). It's also likely that
this rendering of a bend bevilled is unacceptable: the version found in Legh,
which is the only one that I know to have been ruled acceptable, has the dexter
half below the line of division and the sinister half above it, just the
opposite of what is shown here.

Aryanhwy: This is not a correct rendering of a bend bevilled; the
08/1992 Cover Letter has an example of a correctly drawn one, and it has the
chief part of the bend falling below the line of division, and the base part of
the bend rising above, as opposed to the reverse here. I'm attaching the
relevant image from that cover letter.

"The use of charges on a field with a bend bevilled is a step from
period practice." [Kilian MacAd, LoAR 04/2010, East-A]

ROUGE SCARPE: Device
is returned for having multiple Steps from Period Practice (SFPP), armory is
registerable with one SFPP but two or more are cause for return. Also the
bevilled bend was drawn incorrectly which is a reason for return. Related
precedents:

[returning Per chevron enhanced argent and sable,
two pawprints and a wolf's head cabossed counterchanged.] The paw prints are one
weirdness, and the per chevron enhanced is another. (Morgan Blaidd Du, 7/96 p.
19)

"The use of charges on a field with a bend
bevilled is a step from period practice." [Kilian MacAd, LoAR 04/2010,
East-A]

This unfortunately was virtually the same reasons
for return as the previous submission. The submitter needs to eliminate at
least one of the two steps from period practice in her redesign. If she
decides to keep the bend bevilled or per bend bevilled of the previous
submission she should reference the 08/1992 LoAR Cover Letter http://heraldry.sca.org/loar/1992/08/cl.html
to make sure it is drawn correctly. If she would like to keep the
pawprints they should be blazoned as "cat's pawprints" instead of
"cat prints"

6) Rickard
of Rivenvale (M) – New name for Rickard of Gwyntarian

Rivenvale

Escutcheon's Notes:
Client is changing his existing registered name (Reg. April 2000 via the Middle)
to reflect a new group name. Rivenvale is a shire name registered October of
2002 via the middle. Client is releasing his old name upon registration of the
new and cares most about the spelling.

Name Comments:

Aryanhwy: No conflicts found.

ROUGE SCARPE: Forwarded to Laurel.

7) Tethion
de Dol Ffynon (M) – New Name and Device - "A gyronny of eight
azure and argent, a dragon rampant gules countourne armed and langued of the
first maintaining a sword proper palewise"

Castell Gwent

Tethion - from Cornish (and Other) Personal Names from the 10th Century
Bodmin Manumissions at http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/names/Bodmin/

Dol - "meadow" [EN: "also from a do not copy list" I've
found references confirming this is Gaelic for meadow but not one from Appendix
H. A LoAR cites "Merioneth Lay Subsidy 1292"]

Ffynon - "Spring" [EN: Same as above, where I've found several SCA
sources citing Ffynnon as 'Spring/well" but not one from Appendix H as
noted].

Escutcheon's Notes:
Client will NOT accept major changes and desires a male name. Client submitted
several devices together. After much internal discussion it was decided to enter
these onto the ILoI for commentary, and forms will be corrected later. I've
included this despite the sparse name documentation based on a past discussion
and decision with Rouge Scarpe.

Redon has multiple examples of masculine Tethion and other examples of "Teth-"
as a prototheme. All three examples in Bodmin are clearly identified as
masculine (and appear to be different individuals).

Teðion (E 204 witness) Teþion (L 116, 155 witness)

From the May 2010 LoAR acceptances via Calontir:

Nest ffynnon. Name. There was some question regarding the plausibility of the
toponymic element ffynnon 'spring' in a Welsh byname.

Some form of the Welsh o yr 'of the' appears in four locatives: or Dol, Orellyn
(o'r Llyn), Vrnant (o'r Nant) and or pant. The locative terms in these cases are
generic (meadow, lake, stream, valley) rather than being proper names.

In addition to this statement, p. 80, s.n. Pant, lists the forms or pant and
Pant, showing a toponymic byname without a form of o yr.

Based on these examples, ffynnon is a plausible toponymic byname in Welsh.

I will add a request to make major changes to my lets save you submissions
letter since it looks like the name may work as <Tethion or Dol ffynnon>
may work and if not <Tethion or Dol>, <Tethion or ffynnon>, or <Tethion
ffynnon> should and all of these are major changes.

Bynames Based On Location The typical nickname based on location simply uses
the proper name of a place after the given name. In this document, Latin de is
sometimes placed before the place-name. E.g. Tuder Glyne Alan de Ruthin

The submitter sent me another email allowing the change of <de> to
<or> and stating his preference for <Teðion> from the supported
spellings.

I have asked him which he would prefer <de> or <or>. His reply:
"I was actually going for a Cornish name so whichever article would be most
appropriate, in period naming for that area, would be preferable."

Aryanhwy: As has been noted, the documentation does not support the
spelling <Tethion>, only <Teðion> or <Teþion>.

There's also one period name with <ffynnon> 'well' as the substantive:
<Fonon Ddrayne> 1575, <Ffynon-ddrain> 1626 'well with thorn bushes'
(Ffynnon-Ddrain). There may be examples of it as a modifer, but since in that
case it would be the second element, the only way to find them is to page
through the book. I'll do so; if I can find it, it's probably possible to
construct something like <Dolffynon> or <Dol ffynon> 'water-meadow
with a well'.

Talan: Tethion - This is fine.

Dol - It most certainly is *not* Gaelic for 'meadow': it's Welsh. (It's also
Cornish, but with the specialized sense 'meadow with a stream'; 'meadow' is <pras>
or <buthyn>.)

Ffynon - The feminine noun <ffynnon> is 'well, spring' in modern Welsh
[H. Meurig Evans & W.O. Thomas, Y Geiriadur Mawr, Christopher Davies,
Llandybie, 1958]; <ffynon> appears to be a misspelling. Searching on <dol
ffynnon> at <http://isys.llgc.org.uk/index.htm>,
the site of the National Library of Wales, gets two hits, 'CHIRK CASTLE (5)' and
'CROSSE OF SHAW HILL'. Each of these is a .doc file, and each is relevant to
this name. (I've given directions to the documents because the actual URLs are
horrible.) The CROSSE document includes a brief summary of a mortgage of 2
February 1642/3 (i.e., 1642 Old Style, 1643 New Style; the year has been typoed
as '1642/4') that mentions a close of land called <dol ffynnon yr yskyb>
(in that spelling). The CHIRK document includes a brief summary of a 1638 brief
of a suit involving a watercourse that passed through what was called <Dol
ffynnon dwymin> (in that spelling). <Dwymin> is evidently lenited
(after a feminine noun) from <twymin>, which must be a variant of <twym>
~ <twymn> ~ <twymyn> 'hot, warm'. (<Twym> is in Y Geiriadur
Mawr; the other two are from the concise version of the first edition of the
larger Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, which may be downloaded at <http://www.cymru.ac.uk/geiriadur/>
in the form of ten rather large .pdf files.) <Dol ffynnon dwymin> is
presumably 'meadow of the hot/warm spring', 'hot/warm spring meadow', or the
like. <Yskyb> is an older spelling of modern <ysgub> 'sheaf (of
grain), bundle, faggot; brush, broom, besom', as may be confirmed from Edward
Lhuyd's Archaeologia Britannica of 1707, p. 217 s.v. <Barn>, and p. 285
s.v. <A Sheaf>, at <http://books.google.com/books?id=KmsuAAAAQAAJ>.
Wyllyam Salesbury's Welsh-English dictionary of 1547 spells it <yscub>.
The place-name is something like 'spring meadow of the sheaf', though it's not
clear to me exactly what the significance of the modifier is. At any rate, <dol
ffynnon> 'spring meadow, meadow of the spring' appears to be a perfectly
reasonable construction for a minor place-name.

Device Comments:

Talan: <Gyronny> is an adjective, not a noun, so <a gyronny>
is impossible, and 'of eight' is the default number of panes. Swords are
palewise with their points to chief by default. The tincture is always the last
attribute of a charge to be blazoned. This is 'Gyronny azure and argent, a
dragon rampant contourny gules maintaining a sword proper'.

Aryanhwy: Reblazon: "Gyronny azure and argent, a dragon rampant
contourny gules maintaining a sword proper". This conflicts with Aleid van
Deursen (reg. 01/1996 via the Middle), "Lozengy sable and argent, a
basilisk erect contourny gules maintaining a drinking horn Or," with one CD
for the field, but none for the type of maintained charge, and none for a dragon
vs. a basilisk.

ROUGE SCARPE: Name forwarded to Laurel as <Tethion
de Dol Ffynon>. The name was on the ILoI as <Tethlon
de Dol Ffynon>. <Tethlon> was a mispelling of <Tethion> by
Escutcheon on the letter and this has been corrected here. Device
returnd for conflict with Aleid van Deursen
(reg. 01/1996 via the Middle), "Lozengy sable and argent, a basilisk erect
contourny gules maintaining a drinking horn Or," there is one CD for the
field. Maintained charges are not considered significant for difference
and ther is no difference between a dragons and a basilisk.
Since the submitter had sent in several device submissions at once one of those
will replace this as his device submission. If he wishes he may resubmit a
badge in place of this device if the other is registered.

8) Tethion de Dol Ffynon (M) –
New Device - "Argent, three bars gules in chief as many lion's heads erased
of the last "

Castell Gwent

Escutcheon's Note:
Client submitted several devices together. After much internal discussion it was
decided to enter these onto the ILoI for commentary, and forms will be corrected
later.

Device Comments:

Aryanhwy: Reblazon: "Barry gules and argent, on a chief argent
three lion's heads erased gules". This is truly awesome armory. This is
clear of Bella Caterina Malatesta (reg. 03/2003 via the West), "Barry wavy
azure and argent, on a chief argent three crosses crosslet fitchy sable,"
with a CD for the field and one for the tertiaries. And it's clear of Hungary,
Ancient (reg. 12/1994 via Laurel), "Barry argent and gules," with a CD
for adding the chief and one for adding the tertiaries.

Konrad: Since the one he indicated to keep as a device (Device item
number 7) has a conflict this the submitter has indicated to keep this one as a
device submission.

Talan: We don't use 'of the last' and its like, and 'as many' says
nothing that 'three' doesn't say more clearly: 'Argent, three bars and in chief
three lion's heads erased gules'.

ROUGE SCARPE: Forwarded to Laurel with the
Blazon: Argent, three bars and in
chief three lion's heads erased gules.

Escutcheon's Note:
Client submitted several devices together. After much internal discussion it was
decided to enter these onto the ILoI for commentary, and forms will be corrected
later.

Device (Badge) Comments:

Talan: 'Combattant' is equivalent to 'rampant respectant', and heads
can't be rampant; these heads are simply 'respectant'. This is 'Argent, three
piles azure and in base two griffin's heads erased respectant gules langued
azure'.

The chief indented as drawn here is compatible with period style per the
following precedent: "[A chief indented] The device was blazoned as
having three triangles issuant from chief. This style of indentation can be
found in period (for example Lowell of Balumbye (Lindsay of the Mount, pl.
107)), but it was blazoned as either indented or three piles. As current
scholarship believes that such chiefs were originally indented with deep
indentations, we decided to blazon it as indented and leave the depth to
artistic license" (LoAR of July 2000). [Celia the Fair, Lochac-A]

Konrad: As of the writhing of this letter I have not received the
promised redraw on badge forms.

ROUGE SCARPE: Pended. An individual may only have a single piece of armory designated
as a device:Administrative Handbook of the College of
Arms, Submissions Regulations, II. Registerable Items, D. Armory Which May be
Registered to Individuals
1. Personal Device - The single piece of tinctured armory associated with an
individual's Primary Society Name which uniquely identifies that
individual.

The submitter was informed of this and indicated
that he would send new forms with this item redrawn as a badge. I have not
received new forms with this armory redrawn as a badge and since I am posting
this letter early, before the deadline I gave them, I am pending this submission
rather than returning it at this time. If the corrected forms are not
received by the time I prepare the October ILoAR it will be returned. The blazon should be
Argent,
three piles azure and in base two griffin's heads erased respectant gules.
Details such as orbed, armed, or as in this case langued are considered minor
artistic details and are no longer included in the blazon.

Escutcheon's Note:
Client submitted several devices together. After much internal discussion it was
decided to enter these onto the ILoI for commentary, and forms will be corrected
later.

Device (Badge) Comments:

Aryanhwy:

Reblazon: "Sable, on a pile argent a lion's head erased gules".

This is not properly drawn, as piles should not issue from the corners of the
shield:

While we consider piles to conflict with chaussé fields, a field with a pile
is not reblazonable as having a chaussé field, as there is an artistic
distinction that we enforce: piles do not issue from the corners of the
shield. [11/00 Roiberd Mor Barra. A-Drachenwald]

But there's no need to redraw as this conflicts with Morgan MacNeil of Clan
Fergus (reg. 08/1982 via Caid), "Sable, on a pile argent a sword inverted
gules, the hilt between three crescents, one and two, azure," with a CD for
the tertiaries.

ROUGE SCARPE: This is being
returned for conflict with Morgan MacNeil of
Clan Fergus (reg. 08/1982 via Caid), "Sable, on a pile argent a sword
inverted gules, the hilt between three crescents, one and two, azure," with
one CD for changing the type and number of the tertiaries. Also the pile
should not be drawn issuing from the corners.

Precedent: While we consider piles to
conflict with chaussé fields, a field with a pile is not reblazonable as having
a chaussé field, as there is an artistic distinction that we enforce: piles do
not issue from the corners of the shield. [11/00 Roiberd Mor Barra. A-Drachenwald]

As mentioned above an individual may only have one
device and if not for the other problems with this submission it would have
still had to been returned for administrative reasons. The submitter may
submit a badge as a resubmission for this device.